_.

FRANCISCUS.

* * * * *

"INCIDIS IN SCYLLAM, CUPIENS VITARE CHARYBDIM."

I should be sorry to see this fine old _proverb in metaphor_ passed over
with no better notice than that which seems to have been assigned to it
in Boswell's _Johnson_.

Erasmophilos, a correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1774,
quotes a passage from Dr. Jortin's _Life of Erasmus_, vol. ii. p. 151.,
which supplies the following particulars, viz.:--

1. That the line was first discovered by Galeottus Martius of Narni,
A.D. 1476.

2. That it is in lib. v. 301. of the "Alexandreis," a poem in _ten_
books, by Philippe Gualtier (commonly called "de Chatillon," though in
reality a native of Lille, in Flanders).

3. That the context of the passage in which it occurs is as follows:--

"-- Quo tendis inertem
Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis
Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem.
Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim."

where the poet apostrophises Darius, who, while {86} flying from
Alexander, fell into the lands of Bessus. (See _Selections from Gent.
Mag_. vol. ii. p. 199. London, 1814.)

C. FORBES.

This celebrated Latin verse, which has become proverbial, has a very
obscure authority, probably not known to many of your readers. It is
from Gualtier de Lille, as has been remarked by Galeottus Martius and
Paquier in their researches. This Gualtier flourished in the thirteenth
century. The verse is extracted from a poem in ten books, called the
"Alexandriad," and it is the 301st of the 5th book; it relates to the
fate of Darius, who, flying from Alexander, fell into the hands of
Bessus. It runs thus:--

"-- Quo flectis inertem
Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis,
Quem fugias; hostes incurris dum fugis hostem;
_Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim_"

As honest JOHN BUNYAN, to his only bit of Latin which he quotes, places
a marginal note: "The Latin which I borrow,"--a very honest way; so I I
beg to say that I never saw this "Alexandriad," and that the above is an
excerpt from _Menagiana_, pub. 1715, edited by Bertrand de la Monnoie,
wherein may also be found much curious reading and research.

JAMES H. FRISWELL.

* * * * *

A NOTE OF ADMIRATION!

Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to Miss Johanna Baillie, dated October 12,
1825, (Lockhart's _Life of Sir W. S._, vol. vi. p. 82.), says,--